Revealing Conversations
by helen the 2nd
Summary: After a bad week, Adrien just wants to sleep. Too bad Hisoka would rather interrupt with a much needed, rather revealing, conversation. Part 2 of Pretty Little Dolls.


DISCLAIMER: I don't own Miraculous Ladybug or Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness

Warning for implied child abuse.

* * *

_-text- =_ Speaking via tablet, Hisoka doesn't speak French so he uses a tablet

Adrien was done. He was just done with today. He just wanted to fall into bed and sleep that's how done he was.

And it wasn't even dark yet!

Usually he'd be fine even though he hadn't gotten much sleep last night due to patrol and an akuma, then school, a photo shoot during lunch leaving him little time to eat, then after school he had fencing, Chinese, and a piano lesson, all of which ran over for whatever reason.

Now, as he opened the door to his room, his plan was just to crash on his bed and sleep.

But as his eyes fully took in his room, he instead had to hold back a groan.

In the middle of his room, staring at the sunset colored sky outside of his high windows, was Hisoka. Didn't he and the gardener usually go home before sunset?

He really did not want to deal with the other right now. The past week hadn't been the best and last night and today was just the icing on the crappy, burnt cake.

He looked at his light switch and contemplated turning the lights on. He knew it was rude not to announce his presence, but he wondered if he could sneak into bed without the other noticing.

Turns out he didn't need to as the other teen turned around to face him with his arms crossed over his chest, holding his tablet.

The two stared at each other in silence.

Adrien tried not to collapse under the other's stare. He just wanted to go to bed, was that too much to ask?

The question now though was how to get the other out of his room as quickly as possible and not be rude about it?

Maybe he wouldn't have to do anything as he noticed the other coming towards him. He internally sighed in relief.

Then Hisoka stopped in front of him causing him to stiffen. He internally screamed at the other to leave, he was too tired to put up a front at the moment.

He watched as the other teen dropped his arms to type something on his tablet before showing it to him.

-_If it's too much for you why don't you tell someone?_-

Adrien could only blink at the question before looking up at Hisoka. With the lack of light in the room, shadows covered the other's face but this close up Adrien could see something in Hisoka's eyes. Something understanding and pained. Something familiar though he couldn't place where he had seen it before.

"I-I … ," he stuttered and choked on his answer. He couldn't think of an answer for some reason, not one that would be honest yet keep the other from asking more questions, not under that stare that seemed to know so much.

"It makes him happy," he said quietly as if he wasn't really sure of his answer himself, "He needs me for this."

The other raised an eyebrow before typing away at his tablet again.

-_So you're his prim and perfect little doll._-

Adrien felt a surge of agitation at being called a doll as the other typed again.

-_Does he even care about you?_-

That agitation turned into heated anger, "Of course he cares about me!"

When the other teen looked up at him again, the look in his eyes caused Adrien's anger to cool and something inside of him to collapse and left him wondering how he was still standing. He blinked rapidly to clear his vision as he swayed on his feet.

As the other started typing again he straightened up and pushed his tiredness to the back of his mind.

-_Are you sure about that?_-

Adrien glared at the other, his anger renewed and exhaustion a little easier to put off now, though he couldn't, for some reason, give a verbal answer. Instead, he just gave a no-nonsense, quick nod of his head.

When the other just stared at him Adrien tried to hold onto his anger or he risked his exhaustion taking him over.

He was relieved when the other turned his attention to his tablet to type something out.

-_Then where is he now?_-

-_Where has he been all week?_-

Adrien felt as if the other had punched him in the gut. He tried to form an answer, mouth opening and closing as if it was trying to find an answer or trying to regain the air that had left him.

"He's busy," he said quietly, avoiding the other's eyes. He felt shame at that answer, if it didn't sound strong to him, he didn't want to think how it sounded to the other.

He brought his attention back to the other when he heard the other tap his tablet with his fingernail.

-_Abuse isn't always physical, you know._-

Adrien blinked at that. Confused he looked up at the other. "I'm not being abused," he said.

Hisoka sighed before typing again.

-_Physical and emotional abuse and neglect along with sexual abuse are all forms of child abuse._-

Hisoka then highlighted emotional abuse and neglect.

Adrien shook his head quickly in denial of what the other was saying. "No, you're wrong," Adrien said with more conviction then he had previously, his anger heating back up.

Hisoka raised an eyebrow and that look in his eye, the understanding, pained, yet so familiar look, was still there, and for some reason, it held Adrien's anger at bay yet kept it warm and there.

He couldn't explain it, but he wanted to yell at the other …

… while at the same time he wanted to cry out his sorrows into the other's chest.

He blinked. He really needed to get some sleep. Everything was getting to him.

"Look," he said, "I really need to get some sleep. So, if you could …," he stepped out-of-the-way and gestured towards the door signaling the end of the conversation.

The other didn't budge.

Adrien's eyes narrowed but before he could say anything Hisoka took a step towards him and his voice froze in his throat.

They stood still for what felt like a long time, though it may have only been a few moments, before Hisoka sighed.

Hisoka gestured behind him to the floor of Adrien's room, which slightly confused him, before typing something on his tablet.

-_A cage is a cage is a cage._-

Hisoka then stepped past him to make his way towards the door.

Adrien didn't understand what the other meant by that. Then his eyes glanced back at his floor, or more specifically, the shadows, the bar like shadows his windows, cast upon his floor.

Adrien's eyes widened and he whirled around to grab the other's wrist to keep him from leaving. The other turned to face him with a wince.

Adrien's mouth opened and closed, his mind whirled, … he had no idea how to word what he wanted to say.

… And a part of him didn't want him to say anything at all, too scared of how the other would answer.

He tried to get his breathing under control as he looked at the other. The fading sunlight cast an orange light over Hisoka that, for some reason seemed to flicker, reminding Adrien of candlelight, the shadows from the windows and his clothes cast a lattice pattern on the other, and that look in his eye …

Slowly, reluctantly, Adrien let go of the other who started typing.

-_No matter if it's decorated in riches or spartan, a cage, no matter if it's above ground or below, is a cage, no matter if it's lit by the sun or by candlelight, is a cage._-

-_So, the question now is, what do you plan on doing about it? Remain a perfect, little doll with fine stress cracks waiting for the last, little, shattering bit of pressure? Or become a real, flawed boy who can fly and be free?_-

Adrien stared at the other. He still couldn't understand why the look in Hisoka's eye was so familiar but he felt like he could understand better.

There was a knock on the door startling both teens. They both looked towards the door to see the gardener who was wearing a black trench coat over his dirty t-shirt and jeans. He said something which Hisoka responded to before offering Adrien a small smile and wave before disappearing from view. Hisoka looked back at Adrien, nodded, then turned to leave.

Adrien panicked, he still had a question. "Wait," he gasped reaching out to grab at the other again, Hisoka turned around before he could make contact though. His fingers twitched in mid-air before he dropped his hand back down to his side and his eyes dropped to the floor. It took him a moment to compose himself before he looked up determined. "What about you?"

Hisoka blinked before his lips twitched in the slightest of smiles.

-_I'm still learning to fly but I'll get there eventually. The same goes for you if you decide on that path._-

Adrien turned his eyes to the floor again but a few moments later Hisoka had pushed his tablet into Adrien's field of vision.

-_It won't be easy but things that are worth it rarely are._-

He looked up at the other, his gut twisting as the temptation to cry into the other's chest returned. "He's all I have left," he said weakly, "I can't …"

-_Then he better realize it._-

-_And soon._-

What happened next Adrien would contribute to being tired and emotionally worn out because what he could remember all sort of blurred together. What he could remember went along the lines of being in an awkward hug as he cried into Hisoka's chest, being lead to his bed, then Hisoka was leaving after he had been snuggly tucked in and comfortable in his bed.

Then he was asleep.

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First posted on AO3 12/25/2018

Re-posted on FF 5/19/2019


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